PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel
Macron delivered a bleak assessment on the global fight against climate
change to dozens of world leaders and company executives on Tuesday,
telling them: "We are losing the battle".

"We're not moving quickly enough. We all need to act," Macron said,
seeking to breathe new life into a collective effort that was weakened
this summer when President Donald Trump said he was pulling the United
States out of an international accord brokered in the French capital two
years ago.

Macron, who has worked to establish his role as a global leader since
his sweeping election win in May, said modern-day science was revealing
with each day the danger that global warming posed to the planet, he
said.

"We are losing the battle," he said, urging a new phase in the fight
against global warming.

France announced a raft of 12 non-binding commitments, from a $300
million pledge to fight desertification to accelerating the transition
toward a decarbonized economy. But there was no headline promise likely
to reassure poor nations on the sharp end of climate change that they
will be better able to cope.

Public and private financial institutions pledged to channel more funds
to spur the transition to a green economy and investors said they would
pressure corporate giants to shift toward more ecologically friendly
strategies.

Among the commitments, more than 200 institutional investors with $26
trillion in assets under management said on Tuesday they would step up
pressure on the world's biggest corporate greenhouse gas emitters to
combat climate change.

That, they said, would be more effective than threatening to pull the
plug on their investments in companies, which include Coal India
<COAL.NS>, Gazprom <GAZP.MM>, Exxon Mobil <XOM.N> and China Petroleum &
Chemical Corp <600028.SS>.

The European Commission, meanwhile, said it was "looking positively" at
plans to reduce capital requirements for environmentally-friendly
investments by banks in a bid to boost the green economy.

French President Emmanuel Macron welcomes guests for a lunch at the
Elysee Palace as part of the One Planet Summit in Paris, France,
December 12, 2017. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer

"LITTLE FOR THE VULNERABLE"

Climate change is causing more frequent and severe flooding,
droughts, storms and heatwaves as average global temperatures rise
to new records, sea ice melts in the Arctic and sea levels rise.

Developing nations say the rich are lagging with a commitment dating
back to 2009 to provide $100 billion a year by 2020 - from public
and private sources alike - to help them switch from fossil fuels to
greener energy sources and adapt to the effects of climate change.

On Tuesday, the European Commission announced 9 billion euros worth
of investments targeting sustainable cities, sustainable energy and
sustainable agriculture for Africa and EU neighborhood countries.

Yet the United Nations Environment Programme says the cost of
adapting to climate change in developing countries could rise to
between $280 billion and $500 billion per year by 2050.

"Despite the hype, the One Planet summit is delivering little for
the world’s people who are the most vulnerable to climate change,"
said Brandon Wu, director of policy and campaigns at ActionAid USA.

"Rich countries continue to pretend that new schemes for businessmen
to increase their profits will be the center of the solution for the
poor."

Macron used the eve of the summit to award 18 grants to foreign
climate scientists, most of whom are currently U.S.-based, to come
and work in France.